The Red Era: Living in Seclusion in a Siheyuan as a Boss

Chapter 778 The Legendary Story of Liu Family Village!!!

Seeing Old Zhang's curious expression, Aunt Xie smiled and started talking: "Speaking of Uncle Liu Zhiye, he is a very famous person in our Liu Family Village!"

"The old man took up arms to defend his country at the age of sixteen, and became a company commander before he was even twenty. He risked his life on the battlefield in the North Korea and made countless meritorious contributions." As she spoke, she recalled the past: "Brother Wuzi is just like his father, they were exceptionally promising from a young age."

Old Zhang listened intently, nodding repeatedly. "I've long heard of this old hero's name, but unfortunately, I've never had the chance to meet him. I heard that now the old man is..." He lowered his voice mysteriously, pointed his thumb to the sky, "...a very important figure who commands thousands of troops!"

Liu Guozhong, who was standing to the side, chimed in with a wry smile: "That's right! My uncle is very busy with official duties, and he rarely even gets to see his own family members."

Our Liu family has grown into a large and prosperous clan, and those of us who are a little more distant relatives haven't seen him for many years." As he spoke, he sighed softly, his eyes filled with reverence and remembrance.

Everyone in the Liu family knows in their hearts that the Liu family and the Liujiazhuang area owe their current success primarily to whose efforts.

Upon hearing this, Aunt Xie's eyes immediately lit up with pride, and the corners of her mouth unconsciously turned up: "I'm not bragging! I remember that year when my uncle had just returned from military service, he was assigned to work in the security department of the 'Red Star Factory' in the DC district."

Back then, our Liujiazhuang was an extremely poor mountain village with fewer than two thousand people in total, and nine out of ten households were surnamed Liu.

Those were truly miserable days! Each person had less than an acre of land, and it was all barren mountain land. Everyone was completely dependent on the weather, and during the off-season, they had to hunt in the mountains to supplement their income.
But ever since my uncle came back, this poor mountain village has completely changed!

...During the three years of natural disasters, while other places were suffering from famine, our village was able to eat our fill every meal, and even had fish and meat.

Later, my uncle led everyone to start chicken farms, pig farms, fruit orchards, Jingxi rice cultivation, and aquaculture such as Shengfang crab farming. They also successively built brick kilns, woodworking factories, construction teams, and agricultural machinery companies.

At this point, Aunt Xie smiled warmly and whispered, "These stories were all told to me by Guozhong's grandmother herself. You see, Guozhong's father was born in that special era of scarcity."

She paused, her eyes filled with deep nostalgia: "When Grandma Guozhong was alive, she often told us that if it weren't for my eldest brother leading the villagers to work hard and get rid of poverty, it would be unknown whether children like Guozhong's father could have grown up safely! Whenever she talked about these things, the old lady was always filled with emotion."

Old Zhang listened intently and couldn't help but interject, "So, this gentleman is not only a war hero, but also the leader who guided our Liu Family Village out of poverty and into prosperity!"

Aunt Xie nodded and continued, "That's right! Old Zhang, your family moved to Liujiazhuang at a good time."

Around the 1970s, our Liujiazhuang was already a well-known economically prosperous area in the country, known as a mini "Shanghai".

"We weren't called the 'Pearl of Western Beijing' for nothing. Back then, our per capita income reached six or seven thousand yuan. Every household lived in a two-story house with heating upstairs and downstairs, free gas, and black and white televisions..."

Old Zhang nodded slightly, a hint of reminiscence flashing in his eyes: "I know this history very well. I was just a kid back then, and my family had only moved here a short time ago."

He paused, tapping his fingers lightly on the table as he recalled, "Back then, the 'Liujiazhuang High-tech Development Zone' was just an ordinary street. There wasn't even a decent building on the east bank, only a few scattered schools."

As for the NA district, as far as the eye can see, there are only vast expanses of lush green rice paddies, a stark contrast to the high-rise buildings that stand today.

At this point, Old Zhang's face showed a hint of pride: "My father was an eighth-level technician in the city's state-owned machinery factory back then, and his skills were beyond question."

The machine factory here offered him a very generous salary to get him to come.

Upon hearing this, Liu Guozhong sat up straight: "Grandpa Zhang was a genuine eighth-grade worker in a state-owned factory back then! He had a secure job that many people envied, and his monthly salary of over a hundred yuan was quite impressive in the 1960s and 70s."

How could they dare give up this "iron rice bowl" and come to our village-run enterprise to take this "mud rice bowl"?

Old Zhang paused slightly as he stroked the teacup in his hand. The enamel mug was quite old, and there was a line of red characters on the mug that read "Advanced Production Model Worker".

"That's right, that night the whole family practically ripped the roof off."

My mother sat on the edge of the kang (a heated brick bed) wiping away tears. My three younger sisters huddled behind the curtain, eavesdropping. My eldest brother, with his neck stiff, said, "Dad, if you act recklessly, our family will starve..."

He blew away the tea dust floating on the surface of the tea and continued, "But the old man slammed his fist on the table with red eyes and said, 'If I keep sticking to a fixed salary, how will my whole family live a good life!'"

“That’s true.” Old Zhang’s gaze fell on the old black and white photos on the wall. “On my first day at Liujiazhuang No. 1 Machinery Factory, the old Party Secretary Liu Yuanhai came to the factory’s residential compound with a pack of cigarettes and said to my dad, ‘Our factory is newly established, and you, as a technical expert, should mentor some apprentices.’”

After working non-stop for a month or so, the amount on my payslip at the end of the month was twice the salary my dad used to earn at his previous workplace.

"Not to mention," he suddenly laughed, "my siblings and I all went to schools at all levels for free, and the schools even gave us brand-new school supplies!"
The food in the school cafeteria at noon is really delicious; you can eat meat or fish every few days.

Without us kids to weigh on her, my mother was finally able to work as a poultry farmer at the village's chicken farm, sitting at the control panel every day wearing white sleeves, counting the fluffy white eggs rolling onto the conveyor belt.

As Old Zhang spoke, his eyes welled up with tears: "That Spring Festival, the old man, for the first time ever, bought new clothes for everyone in the family and also bought red ribbons for his three younger sisters."

On New Year's Eve, the table was laden with braised pork, sweet and sour fish, and spicy chicken... The old man sipped his wine and said, "This is what celebrating the New Year should be like."

Liu Guozhong and Zhang Wenwen listened intently. Their generation had never experienced hardship, so listening to the older generation talk about the hardships of the past felt particularly novel.

Aunt Xie said softly, "To be honest, our village-run enterprises were really willing to invest back then."

Guozhong's grandfather once said that back then, the distillers the winery hired from Maotai Town lived in detached villas with their own courtyards, and their monthly salaries were higher than those of some high-ranking officials.

Liu Guozhong suddenly slapped his thigh: "That's right! Uncle Zhang, the apprentices your grandfather trained back then are now the backbone of various factories in our development zone."

For example, Chief Engineer Ma of the General Machinery Plant was named a national model worker last year!

Old Zhang smiled with satisfaction: "Old Ma really lived up to expectations."

"But the most impressive one has to be Professor Zhao, whom your Uncle Liu brought from Yenching University back then." He lowered his voice and said, "I heard that he's now an expert specializing in... When he was sent down to this area, the village actually set up a laboratory for him and assigned him several college students as assistants so he could continue his experiments."

Aunt Xie leaned closer mysteriously: "I know about this."

When Professor Zhao returned to Yenching University after his death, he hugged the old village chief and cried like a child.

Now he's an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and he even comes back to stay for a while every Spring Festival!

Aunt Xie chimed in: "The reason why our Liu Family Village is where it is today is because of this pioneering spirit."

Your uncle Liu Zhiye used to say, "Talent is the primary productive force," and thinking about it now, that's truly a profound truth.

She pointed to the brightly lit east bank of the Kaihe River outside the window, "Look at us now, we have three academician workstations and two postdoctoral research stations here. Even Tsinghua and Peking Universities are vying to build branch campuses in our district."

As he was speaking, footsteps were heard outside the door.

As soon as the sliding door opened, a sprightly old man walked in, carrying a bamboo vegetable basket.

He chuckled and said, "I could hear you guys from far away!"

Liu Guozhong quickly stood up to greet him: "Uncle Ni! You've come at the perfect time! We were just talking about starting our business in our village back then!"

Professor Ni placed his basket on the table, which contained several fresh bok choy heads: "These were just picked from the experimental field, a new variety, and they taste delicious!" He took off his reading glasses and wiped them, his gaze sweeping over the old photos on the wall, and sighed, "More than forty years have passed in the blink of an eye."

Old Zhang quickly offered Professor Ni his seat: "Please sit down, sir. If it weren't for you and your students improving our vegetable greenhouses back then, where would the 'Beijing Vegetable Basket' brand come from?"

Professor Ni waved his hand: "This was all done by everyone together."

"I remember back then, the village assigned me several agricultural college students as assistants. They worked in the fields during the day and stayed up all night in the lab," he said, pointing to an old photograph. "Look at this glass greenhouse; that was the first makeshift shed we built back then." Aunt Xie poured Professor Zhao a cup of hot tea: "Please try some. This is the first harvest of this year from a newly cultivated tea variety by our tea company."

Professor Zhao took a sip, his eyes lighting up: "Excellent tea! Even more fragrant than Longjing!" He turned to Liu Guozhong, "Your uncle was right when he said that science and technology are the primary productive forces."

The agricultural science and technology park in our Liujiazhuang area now is much better than that small laboratory from back then!

The tea-growing industry in Liujiazhuang has a history of more than 30 years and has now become one of the famous teas in northern China.

To be honest, when Liu Zhiye proposed developing a tea plantation industry in Liujiazhuang, many people were not optimistic about it.

Because of his success in planting Chinese medicinal herbs, Liu Zhiye suddenly thought of planting tea. People in the capital city especially love tea, which can be said to be a necessity of life.

Those with money drink fine tea, while those without money still have to drink a pot of "high-quality tea".

So, Liu Zhiye had the idea of ​​growing tea that year and began to think about growing tea himself.

This was not just an experiment for him at the time, but also a direction for the future development of alpine agriculture.

That was Liu Zhiye's thinking at the time: if Liujiazhuang could successfully grow high-quality tea, then the agriculture of Liujiazhuang would take another step forward.

For every person who approves, there is someone who opposes.

At the time, some people thought that the capital city was not suitable for growing tea because of its location in the north, as the climate and water quality were not conducive to the growth of tea trees.

Tea trees thrive in warm and humid climates, but the climate in Beijing is quite different.

The climate of the Beijing area is a temperate semi-humid continental monsoon climate, with an average annual temperature of around 10℃ and relatively low humidity.

These climatic conditions are not conducive to the growth of tea trees, easily leading to slow growth and poor tea quality.

In addition, water quality has a significant impact on the quality of tea.

Ideal water quality should have a moderate pH value, appropriate mineral content, be non-toxic and harmless, and odorless.

However, the water quality in the Beijing area is unsuitable as a source for tea cultivation due to its high salt content, hardness, and residual chlorine levels.

While water quality can be improved through water treatment, the cost is high, making it impractical for small-scale tea growers.

Actually, that's not entirely true; there are quite a few places in the Beijing area that are suitable for tea cultivation.

Surveys have found that suburban areas such as Huairou, Miyun, and Yanqing have relatively good ecological environments and are suitable for tea cultivation.

Tea cultivation has been recorded in places like Yanqi Lake in Huairou, Xishan in Miyun, Badaling and Kangzhuang in YQ District, and southwest of Liujiazhuang in western Beijing. Some villages still retain a considerable number of tea trees.

The climate and soil conditions of these places are very suitable for growing green tea and black tea, among which Yunju Temple green tea from Huairou, Xishan Jinjunmei and Yuanyang tea from Miyun are the most famous.

Back then, Liu Zhiye had his uncle Liu Yuansheng try planting green tea, which was made from green tea seedlings transplanted from Yunju Temple in Xishan.

Because it was an experimental planting, my uncle only planted three-tenths of an acre of green tea. With such a small quantity, he naturally used traditional tea-making techniques, which involved frying and fermentation.

Liu Zhiye put a lot of effort into tea cultivation. Later, he even invited Master Huiming from Yunju Temple in Xishan to guide his uncles on how to refine tea.

Xishan and Liujiazhuang have quite similar geographical environments. Since Xishan can produce tea of ​​excellent quality, Liujiazhuang should also be able to produce tea of ​​the same high quality.

As expected, the geographical location, climate, water quality, and soil of the southwestern mountainous area of ​​Liujiazhuang are very suitable for tea cultivation.

After three years of careful cultivation, the first batch of tea leaves in Liujiazhuang has finally yielded a bumper harvest.

It was a bright spring morning when Liu Zhiye led the villagers to the tea garden. The tender green tea buds glistened in the morning dew and emitted a faint fragrance.

Master Huiming personally demonstrated the key points of tea picking: "When picking tea, you must pick the tip; one bud and one leaf are the most precious."

The process of making tea is even more meticulous.

The village chief, Liu Yuanhai, specially built a traditional handmade tea workshop in the village, strictly controlling every step from fixing, rolling to baking.

Master Huiming and his apprentices often stayed by the stove until late at night, constantly adjusting the heat: "If the heat is even slightly off, the tea will lose three parts of its aroma."

Hard work pays off. After brewing the first batch of finished tea, the tea soup was clear and bright, with a rich and lasting aroma.

After tasting it, the most knowledgeable tea shop owner in Beijing praised it repeatedly: "This tea has the spirit of the mountains and fields in its aroma, and it is no less than Longjing or Da Hong Pao!"

The news spread quickly, and several state-owned tea shops and supply and marketing cooperatives in Beijing came to place orders.

Taking advantage of the momentum, Liu Yuanhai introduced other tea tree varieties.

Today, the tea gardens in Liujiazhuang have expanded to over 100,000 mu (approximately 6,667 hectares), and during the tea-picking season, the mountains and fields are bustling with activity.

Liujiazhuang has also started a tea culture festival, where visitors can not only experience tea picking and processing, but also enjoy the sunrise and sea of ​​clouds on the tea mountain.

What's even more gratifying is that, according to tests conducted by the Academy of Agricultural Sciences, the amino acid content of tea produced in Liujiazhuang is 30% higher than that of ordinary tea, thanks to the unique local climate and soil conditions.

Today, the tea industry in Liujiazhuang is growing larger and larger, forming an industrial chain.

Professor Ni Ni took a sip of tea and exclaimed, "Who would have thought that such fine tea could be grown in this remote mountain valley in the north!"

……

As everyone was talking, a cheerful melody drifted from afar.

Zhang Wenwen ran to the window and exclaimed in surprise, "Look! The light show in the East Bank District has started again!"

Everyone stood up and looked out the window.

In the distance, the east bank of the river was ablaze with lights, and colorful lasers intertwined in the night sky, creating a striking contrast between modern skyscrapers and traditional red lanterns.

Further away, on the newly built high-speed railway bridge, a bullet train is whizzing past.

Professor Zhao patted Liu Guozhong on the shoulder: "Son, remember, good days are earned through hard work."

Your generation must take up this baton well!

Liu Guozhong nodded heavily, gazing at the dazzling lights outside the window, as if he could see the figures of generations of people struggling on this land.

From thatched huts to high-rise buildings, from relying on the weather for a living to using science and technology to revitalize agriculture, they have walked this road to prosperity steadily and with pride.

(End of this chapter)